I’m always looking for ways to make my life easier, but so many life hacks I see online seem much more complicated than they are worth. I’d love to have easier ways to store things or clean my house, but not if it takes me buying 20 different things and doing 37 steps before it becomes easier. So if I’m going to try a life hack, I need to make sure it is worth my time and effort before I consider doing it. Fortunately, I’ve found 2 things that actually did help me that were super easy and I wanted to share them with you!
The first is a hack for helping me so something that I know I don’t do as often as I should: cleaning my makeup brushes. I know how gross it is to not clean my brushes often, but it always seems like I only remember to do it when I need to use the brushes and can’t wait for them to dry. Also, I’ve learned how it’s not the best to dry brushes while laying them on their sides so I’ve been trying to figure out a better way to dry them (and never dry them with the brush side up as that can get water into the glue and ruin the brush).
I saw online that there are brush drying racks and I thought that might be a good option for me. But it does take up counter space, which I don’t have in my bathroom, and I really didn’t need something that big. I only have 4 or 5 brushes I use and I don’t need a dryer that can hold over 15 brushes. For someone who uses a lot of brushes, it does seem like a perfect thing to have, but it’s just not for me. But I liked the idea of how it was holding brushes the right way and I decided to try to figure out what I could do to create something like it.
What I ended up doing is using hair elastics and wrapping them around a basket I have in my bathroom. Then I could slide the brush in the elastic and it held them perfectly to dry without taking up really any space!
I shared this online and someone suggested putting a strip of magnets on the basket so I could attach the metal part of each brush on there. I do have magnetic tape so I might try that next time. But this was so easy and simple to do so I might just keep doing the hair elastic trick. I also recently got a new silicone scrubber and brush soap bar so hopefully this motivates me to clean my brushes more often.
The other new life hack I used was one for getting ready to travel for Thanksgiving. I don’t travel that often and I fly even less often (the last time I flew was 2 years ago!) so I don’t have a ton of travel containers that I use for storing lotions and other toiletries. The last few times I’ve traveled I just brought full size containers with me in my car since I had all the space I wanted to pack things. But since I’m flying I have to be aware of how large the containers are and I couldn’t really find what I was looking for at the store in the travel section. I wanted little jars for my day and night face lotions and all of the containers seemed to be big ones.
So I was wandering around the store to see if I could find something and I found the perfect thing in the pharmacy!
Since I only needed 2 containers and it came with an extra lid, it was perfect. I separated out 2 of the jars and used the 2 lids. I could have combined them if I needed more containers and stacked them, but this was the perfect solution for 2 lotions and it was very easy to pack. And the containers should be easy enough to clean so I don’t have to worry about the lotions getting gross inside of the jars like I do with some of the travel containers I’ve had in the past. I have no idea when I will fly again after this trip, but I will store them after they are cleaned so they are ready for the next time I need them.
I know this is a bit of a random post, but I seriously was just so happy when I figured these 2 hacks out and when I find something I love I just have to share it with everyone! Hopefully you all will find one or both of them helpful in your life, and if you know of any other easy and simple life hacks I’d love to know about them!